I worked in Information Technology for 30 years. I was actually on call December 31, 1999. Remember Y2K? Lots of folks felt like there had been a tremendous overreaction to this potential problem. What most people did not see was the 3 years before the change from 1999 to 2000. There was an immense amount of work that went on changing the date routines of uncountable computer programs on mainframe systems. This is when Indian programmers first started coming to this country in large numbers, to work on the Y2K issue. The work was done, and there were very few glitches across the computer world. People then had the luxury of making fun of the whole Y2K phenomenon.
What I am trying to figure out is, are we overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic? The truth is we will not really know until it is all over a few months from now if our responses were adequate, inadequate or overboard. If it follows the pattern of the 1918 flu pandemic it will be a year or two from now before we know.
What I have come to believe is that since our government has spent so much time denying, then UNDER reacting, we may have had no other option but to overreact. We did not have an army of people “changing code” to short circuit a potential issue. Instead we have a POTUS more worried about his reelection than the health and well being of the populace he is ostensibly leading. We have an administration that has weakened institutions to the point that an adequate response may not be possible. We should have been preparing for this crisis months ago.
Are we being schizophrenic?
We are suspending the season in several professional sports leagues. Schools are closing. Travel is being restricted. Large gatherings are being prohibited. Robin described to me empty shelves in Aldi and Costco. I have read about more than one fight over toilet paper in several stores. Every little cough has folks thinking coronavirus.
Yet when I drive around I see cars in front of restaurants. Our local library and YMCA had completely full parking lots. I went into a big box golf store today, and it was amazingly busy. It strikes me that there is some real schizophrenia going on right now. I went to the store on a non essential task, but carried and used my bottle of hand sanitizer. I saw more than a few folks wearing gloves in the 3 stores I visited, but except for when we flew back from New Orleans, I have not seen anyone wearing a mask. Perhaps we are just attempting to have a normal life while maintaining precautions. At least that is what I am attempting to do.
It saddens me that we do not have an administration that is competent and that we can trust in a time of crisis. I, for one, do not care to live in interesting times. I would be quite content to rock along dealing with my own petty day to day problems.
How nice it would be to laugh at ourselves in a few months about our overreactions that may have forestalled a larger crisis. We can only hope.
Great time to have a Zombie walk.